We have always striven to create good-neighborly relations with Hungary, regardless of what system prevailed in Hungary. You probably remember that several months before the war, the Soviet and Hungarian governments exchanged greetings.

At the same time we returned to Hungary those banners that had been seized as trophies by tsarist troops in 1848. But the Hungarian government declared war on the Soviet Union not long afterward. We were attacked, and we could not do anything other than defend ourselves. Near Voronezh we came face to face with Hungarian army corps.

Our policy toward Hungary was not guided by feelings of vengeance and hostility. Feelings of vengeance and hostility are generally not a basis for politics. Foreign policy must be built on reality. When the turning point came during the war, when the star of the Germans began to fade, the then head of Hungary, Horthy, requested an armistice from us. We accommodated this request. If we had been guided by feelings of vengeance and hostility toward Hungary, we would not have accommodated this request.

Horthy did not see the matter through, retreated, surrendered himself into the hands of the Germans. But new people came to Hungary who represented the people. Hungary's good fortune is that these new people appeared, for it is to them that it owes its independence.

We are not guilty before Hungary. Tsarist Russia was guilty. The Russian tsar in 1848 helped the Habsburg monarchy suppress the Hungarian revolution. We remember this. But we bear no responsibility, for we shot the last tsar in 1918 in the Urals, and thereby put a cross on the old system.

Now we speak of friendship between the Soviet Union and Hungary. And this word "friendship" is not an empty phrase, not propaganda!

What is the reason that small peoples treat the Soviet Union and its policy with trust?

The reason lies, above all, in the ideology of our state, the foundations of which were laid by Lenin. Every nation, large and small, has certain qualities peculiar to it alone; every nation makes its own contribution to the enrichment of humanity's common wealth. In every nation there is something that neither the Russians, nor the Ukrainians, nor any other people possess. In the Soviet Union there are nations that had already begun to die out but have now been revived and have received from us, for example, even an alphabet.

If we did not treat small peoples with respect, if we did not honor their rights and national independence, if we interfered in the internal affairs of small states, we would be contradicting our own ideology and would be disorganizing our own party. Can we do this? No! We cannot do this. If we did this, we would be sawing off the branch we are sitting on.

Another reason that compels us to honor the independence of small states is the composition of our own state. Look at the Soviet Union! Here there are not only large nations but also small ones; there are nationalities and peoples. Can we disregard the opinion of our own nationalities when it comes to our attitude toward small peoples living outside our country? No! We cannot do this, otherwise we would be undermining the foundations of our multinational state.

These are the reasons that explain why genuine friendship is possible between such a great power as the Soviet Union and such a small state as Hungary.

When we speak of friendship, we mean it seriously. By this we mean that we are prepared to make even sacrifices for the sake of this friendship, if anyone should try to violate it.

On the basis of all this I have said that the friendship between the great Soviet Union and small Hungary is not an empty phrase, not propaganda. Therefore with a clear conscience I raise my glass to the friendship of the Soviet Union and Hungary.

Long live the friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union and the people of the democratic Hungarian Republic.